In What Way Does Using the Sensorial Materials Help the Child’s Whole Development? Give Examples

The sensory system is a part of the nervous system. It is responsible for processing our sensory information, and it is the way in which we make contact in our everyday lives through our five senses – sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste. (IML Training, 2012) Our sensory receptors allow us to pick up information – ears, eyes, nostrils, tongue and skin. All senses evolve to collect their distinct type of information about our environment and to inform us of our status within it. (Goldstein, 2009)

Children learn and interact with their environment through physical movement, therefore young children must be provided with ample opportunities to be hands on and experience movement. Children must be involved in developmentally activities to improve competence, in gross and fine motor skills. Including a current amount of time for outside play for children to developed full body coordination .It’s also important for children learn about the world through their senses, sensory activities should be included into the curriculum to promote sensory exploration. Children should recognize faces and place that are familiar to them, develop preferences in what they see (Expressing likes and dislikes), along anticipating events from visual cues. Providing

Maria Montessori founded an education system which is called Montessori and still bares her name, her system is based on belief in the child’s creative potential, (Douglas, n.d.). Her first Casa Dei Bambini (Children’s house), where Maria was using her approach of teaching was opened in 1907 in Rome. She was great educator who believed that children are learning through their personal experience at their right time and their own pace. (Ridgway, 2007). Children rather than learning largely from what the teachers and the textbooks say, learn from “doing”,(Douglas, n.d.). To provide for children an effective, independent learning process, and that they become a competent and confident learner, Teacher had to provide for children a healthy, clean, well-prepared and well organised environment in which children could develop. Maria Montessori came up with idea that if children have to work and play independently, they have to be comfortable and need appropriately sized tools and items that fit their small hands (Mooney, 2000). Montessori believed that children learn through sensory experiences. Teacher has a responsibility to provide wonderful sights, textures, sounds, and smells for children. Sensory

Inspired by the work of Itard and Seguin, two almost forgotten French doctors, Maria Montessori took the idea of scientific approach to develop her theories, principles and beliefs in early childhood education, which through observation and experimentation. All the learning activities and teaching materials are purposeful and aimed to stimulate senses, mind, and provide self-esteem and achievement.

Children’s sensory exploration develops. Firstly, they can observe the shape of bubble wrap. Second, they can strengthen their fine motor skills by pressing the bubble wrap onto paper to create paints. Also, when children use the brush to paint, they have to control their movement and how to hold a brush. Therefore, they need patients and flexibility to use this brush and this can develop their grass motor skill. Furthermore, when children do this activity, they need to combine to use their eyes and hands to work together. This can help children use two parts of the body cooperate. Moreover, when children use the brush to daub the bubble wrap, they can hear the sound that it makes and they can understand more and learn more about this

The process of imparting and interplaying information with the suroundings is done by somatosensory system1.Many pursuits of daily life requires its functioning. Sherrington classified sensory system into:Exteroceptive sensation (superficial sensation):tactile sensation (thigmesthesia), Pain sensation (algesia), Temperature sensation (thermesthesia), Vibratory sensation (pallesthesia).Proprioceptive sensation (deep sensation):Joint position sense (arthresthesia),Kinesthesia: motion sense.Cortical sensations:Stereognosis: ability to recognize and identify objects,Graphesthesia: ability to recognize symbols written on the skin,Two-point discrimination: ability to recognize simultaneous stimulation by two blunt points,Touch localization

DR Maria Montessori’s main discovery was the reality of a child’s true nature WHICH IS the NORMALIZED CHILD. She described the

of that data. Young children are naturally mathematicians and scientists, learning vast amounts of information daily, as they explore the world by playing and moving around in their bodies. Play activities provide our children with the ability to learn concepts. Child’s play is revealed to be excellent unconscious preparation for future education in mathematics and natural sciences. The infants begin to perceive the world and eventually to track the movements of activity in their everyday surroundings. This is when physical movement begins. The child becomes aware of his limbs, and this starts the process of the child grabbing things and kicking his legs, feeling and finding things to put in his mouth. The child is exploring his surroundings.

Dr Maria Montessori concluded, therefore, “the tongue, which he uses for speaking and more of his hands, which he employs for work” are more intimately connected with his intelligence than any other parts of body. (Montessori, A Modern Approach, Chapter 1, Page 34). Dr Maria Montessori really emphasized on sensorial activities in her classroom, materials in her classroom are in various textures, sizes, which that some are soft or hard, and that objects have different colours and shades. The child needs to freely explore in his prepared environment so he can differentiate among these qualities. When the child grows older, he is now has more interest in refining his sensory input. A more in depth of exploration into sameness, differences and gradations of same and different objects in his environment is now realizes by him. Through these senses, the child is able to study his environment and through this study, he is then begins to understand his environment and learns from it as well. Dr Maria Montessori here referred the child as a “sensorial explorer”. The child learns through the sensorial materials by given an opportunity to classify the meaning of the material around him which in return leads to the child making his own experiences in his environment. Sooner and later, the child learns to adapt to his environment and now he gains a decision making skill, which is not far from being an independent individual.

Maria Montessori is one of the many early childhood theorist we have. Although there are many I chose to write about her, because of her unique theories. Maria was born in Italy in 1870 to Her father, Allessandro Montessori a retired army officer. Her mother, Renilde Stoppani Montessori, an intelligent, modern-thinking woman from a wealthy family. As a young child, Maria’s mom taught her how to knit, and in her spare time she would knit for the poor. This act of kindness was to teach her to be compassionate.

We all learn that we have only five senses, but when we grow up and start to understand the real word and think outside the box, we start questioning our second

The sensing process which includes all five senses, seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching is the way the

 The students will understand the concept of the five senses that humans have. These five senses are touch, taste, sight, smell, and hearing. These senses make it possible for people to interact with others and get around in their daily lives.

Dr. Maria Montessori was a keen observer of children. She used her observational and experimental proclivities from her medical background to develop, what we might today call, a Constructivist understanding of the process of learning. She studied them scientifically. If she saw some unusual behavior in a child, she would say,”I won’t believe it now, I shall if it happens again”. She studied the conditions in which the children would perform those actions.

In addition to their study of base-10 blocks, Moyer, Niezgoda, and Stanley (2005) also reported on a project in a kindergarten class of 18 students. The students were engaged in a 3-day lesson on patterns. On the first day, they used wooden pattern blocks, on the second day they used Web-based virtual pattern blocks, and on the third day they drew patterns freehand on construction paper. When using the virtual blocks, most students created more complex patterns and used more total blocks. The researchers further noted that the second graders in the base-10 block study showed more sophisticated strategies after using the virtual manipulatives. In addition, they note that the English Language Learners were able to demonstrate their understanding of place-value concepts even though they could not explain them verbally.